


Sailor Moon: Between the Lines

by katrani



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Romance, Slice of Life, canon extensions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-03
Updated: 2019-05-29
Packaged: 2019-06-04 21:42:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 3,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15156221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katrani/pseuds/katrani
Summary: Expanding on the anime, each chapter is a scene that could have been in each episode, something additional to or implied from what's there. Will be very headcanon-heavy!





	1. Transformation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Usagi gets caught up on her way to Naru's.

Her feet pounded against the pavement, matching the beat of her heart. Naru’s crying echoed in her head, but it was getting weaker- were the gems in her hair not matched to her friend’s state anymore, or was Naru being hurt? Usagi didn’t know, and increased her pace.

She counted the blocks as she ran. She had to keep track of how much further it would be, how much longer it would take her to get to Naru, how soon she could help her friend. Yet at the same time, she didn’t want to reach her destination. Something within her sang to be Sailor Moon, a tingling and buzzing that filled every part of her. This was right, this was fulfilling, this was who she was always meant to be. The armor around her chest was a little too constricting, the boots she wore felt a little too heavy on her feet, the gloves covering her hands were too dainty for the danger she approached, but! For the first time in her life, Usagi felt truly satisfied.

No, not quite satisfied- something was still missing. She was alone. She didn’t know who was supposed to be here, what kind of help she expected, she just knew that there should be something else, someone else, with her.

Naru yelped in pain again, the sound faint around Usagi’s thoughts, and guilt burned at her. She skidded as she turned the final corner to Osa-P, almost losing her balance but just managing to keep upright. She slammed the door open. “Stop right there!”

Satisfying or not, she needed the power of this transformation to help her best friend.


	2. Behavior

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naru notices a pattern.

Something was odd in Juban.

Naru was certain of it, watching Umino and the other boys walk away as she comforted Usagi. They were acting completely differently, just like her “mother” had before.

She had thought it a nightmare, or maybe a dream, considering she’d been rescued from the monster. But her mother had been jumpy ever since, and avoided the store's basement. People had avoided Osa-P for a few days, and she had heard whispers- quickly shushed when she walked by- about a weird vibe around the store.

And there had been no denying the bruises on her neck and and shoulders from almost being choked, or the small scratches the monster’s nails had left.

She could have fooled herself into it being an odd week, maybe people were affected by the weather, maybe she had imagined all of the weirdness. But here were the boys, having gone to that new Fortune House, and acting so very strangely, so meanly.

Something was odd in Juban, something was targeting her neighbors, but what could she do about it? Considering it frightened her to her core. Doing nothing frightened her more.


	3. Listening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ikuko hears something she shouldn't.

A commercial came on, louder than the program had been, and Ikuko jolted awake. She sat up with a yawn, barely remembering the blanket she’d been patching in time to catch it before the section with her sewing needle stuck through fell to the floor. She looked at it, bleary-eyed. It was only half done, but she was clearly too tired to do more tonight.

She shut off the tv and glanced at the clock on the wall. Midnight? No wonder she had drifted off to sleep! Odd that Kenji hadn’t come to get her- he must’ve been tired enough to sleep as soon as he lay down tonight. At least neither of the kids had seen her, or at least she hoped.

She set the blanket to the side of the couch, pulling the needle off the thread and sticking it in the pincushion on the coffee table. She would finish it in the morning, before making breakfast for everyone, and then Shingo could stop using the extra bedding. Maybe she should just get her son a new blanket? But then, she didn’t want to spoil her children too much. She’d wait until it needed to be patched again- that boy was so rough in his sleep, it wouldn’t be too long until he tore the stitching out of more of it.

Decision made, Ikuko stood and headed upstairs. She paused in the hallway, hearing something. A man’s voice, but much smoother and softer than her Kenji’s. It was coming from Usagi’s room- a radio program? Ikuko scowled, and placed her hand on Usagi’s door. It was way past her bedtime, and she needed to be scolded.

“I am your host, Jay Daito, and tonight’s love letter comes from Naru in Juban…”

Ikuko paused. A love show? She smiled, despite still being mad at Usagi being up so late. She’d done the same as a teen, hoping to learn how to approach the people she liked. And tonight’s letter came from her friend! It wouldn’t be right, to take away something the two of them could be excited about tomorrow.

She turned away, continuing to her own room. She crawled under the blankets next to Kenji, and fell asleep with memories of young love filling Ikuko's dreams.


	4. Weight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luna needs to talk to Usagi.

It had been a long day. Luna knew she should say something, but she couldn’t find the words- things like this never came easy to her, even with people she liked. With a crybaby that could barely finish off a single monster? There was no way.

Still, she had to try.

The words still wouldn’t come though, not until they were settling down for the night. Usagi was curled up under her namesake blanket, and Luna at her feet, before she finally came to a decision.

“Usagi?”

The girl stirred slightly, her eyes half-open. “Yeah?”

“I just wanted to say…” Her voice caught a little. “I’m sorry.”

Usagi propped herself up on one arm. “What’re you talking about?”

Luna sat up, tail twitching nervously. “I might have been pushing you a little hard today. I should never have pulled my claws on you. You’re not a bad girl, and you were trying to do something important today. I don’t know why I got so frustrated.”

“Oh.” Usagi stared at her for a moment, clearly unsure how to react. “Well, thank you!”

Silence filled the space between them. Usagi scratched her wrist for a moment, waiting, but when Luna didn’t say anything else she lay down again and pulled her blanket back over herself.

Luna shook her head and flicked her ears back and forth a few times, trying to work out her nervousness. She had to do this! It wouldn’t be right not to! 

“Usagi…” she said again.

“Mmmn?” She didn’t sit up this time, merely looked at Luna from where she lay. “What is it, Luna? I want to try and get up early tomorrow!”

Luna walked forward, until she was sitting right in front of her. “I also wanted to apologize for- for the things I said in the past few days. About… you, and your weight. It was uncalled for. You’re not a bad person for eating a lot, or gaining weight, or anything.”

“Oh.”

More silence. Luna scratched behind her ear. Had she spoken poorly?

Usagi placed her hand on Luna’s head, rubbing the fur between her ears. “Thanks, Luna. That means a lot.” She yawned. “Now, can we go to sleep?”

Luna let out a small purr as she circled on the bed and made herself comfortable. “Of course. Good night, Usagi.”


	5. Suspicion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naru continues putting pieces together.

Everyone was fawning over their new Chanelas. The creatures were cute, and did put off a nice scent, but Naru didn’t understand them at all. They felt like a fad, and she almost felt bad for the furballs.

Except she didn’t. Not really. She watched her classmates fawning over them, as Usagi talked to her about Shingo also being captivated by one. The Chanelas came from a new pet shop. Just like the sleeping brooches had come from a new radio show, and the boys had gone to a new fortune teller’s, and the girls had gotten sick and weak from a new gym. The pattern was impossible to ignore. It made her sick, that someone- some force, some group- was using trends, and preying on everyone’s wants.

And then there was Usagi, who seemed interested in these fads- but only after something went wrong. And things always went right, within a day or two of Usagi being made aware of it. Though each of the new businesses was only open for a few days before that anyways, so maybe it was coincidence. But Naru couldn't let it go.

“Usagi-” she started, but was cut off as Usagi noticed Miss Haruna coming into the classroom and everyone rushed to hide their Chanelas.

She tried to put it out of her mind. She still didn’t have anything she could do, except try to avoid new businesses, right? And encourage her friends not to. Maybe it would help, in her own small way.


	6. Music

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beryl listens to Jadeite's new plan.

“Queen Beryl, I have a new plan,” Jadeite said, bowed properly before her. He held something in his hand, though it was small enough- and human enough- that Beryl wasn’t quite sure what it was.

Her eyes flicked from her scepter, from the status of Metallia’s energy and the spread of their rule, to her general. “And what have you come up with this time?” she prompted. Truly, she was tiring of his constant plans. They were a drain on resources, on the money her monsters worked so hard to steal- a wearisome task, but one that was needed to operate among humans. Magic could only get so far, when so many people had to be removed from buildings without stirring up any suspicion. Jadeite’s plans used the most money, but they also brought in the most energy, so she allowed him a lot of leeway.

“Something that will barely require any effort, my queen,” he said. He held up the object for her to see: a plastic square, with some sort of reel inside, and two holes through it. “This is a cassette tape. Humans use it to listen to music.”

Beryl sneered at him; her patience could only go so far. “Do you want some of the Dark Kingdom’s citizens to form a band?”

The attendant monsters all chortled, and Jadeite’s careful calm fell for a brief instant, annoyance crossing his features. “No, my queen,” he said. “I’ve devised a song myself. If I might have some time to demonstrate?”

She rested her face in her hand, arm propped on the chair of her throne. “Very well.” She could use some amusement, at the least.

Jadeite snapped his fingers, and a table with a vase of roses appeared. A bit of magic, and the cassette began floating in an orb, which approximated whatever device humans used it with. A soft song started playing, filling her court with the sound of a piano. “Watch the flowers, if you would, Queen Beryl.”

She did so, though it was boring. They were just flowers, common on this planet. They had no use. Though as the song drifted on, she could almost picture something else. Something from long ago. A smaller room, a wooden table instead of magic, one well-dressed boy before her instead of a crowd of monsters.

“Beryl!” the boy said, holding up the flowers. “I found these for you! Mom said I’m supposed to give them to girls today!”

She reached out for them, the hand of her memory softer, chubbier, much younger. There was dirt under her nails, and her skin was sun-freckled. “Thanks, Endymion! Oh, hold on, I know we have-” she found the fanciest cup she could, in place of a vase, and set it on the table so she could put the flowers on it. “There. That’ll do, right?”  
He nodded. “Yeah! I hope you take care of them, Beryl.” But he still held more flowers, so she doubted that. Clearly he had plenty. “Anyways, I have to go visit the rest of the ladies’ daughters. But I wanted to make sure you got these first!”

Despite the admission that he was giving roses to everyone, her heart fluttered. She curtised to him, to her prince and best friend, and he left in a rush.

She looked at the flowers again, only to gasp as they wilted before her eyes.

Beryl blinked, and she was back in her throne room. Jadeite’s song had finished, and the roses were dead, dried husks that could’ve been there for weeks. “The song stole their energy?” she asked, more startled than anything. How had she let herself drift off like that?

Jadeite bowed to her again and explained how it worked, while Beryl’s thoughts rushed through a multitude of emotions. Why now? What had prompted the memory? Endymion was long dead, and he had rejected her even longer before that, though before he’d rejected their home.

She realized her general was waiting for an answer. She waved her hand at him, casting the memories out with the motion. The past had no place in her future. “Very well. Implement this music, and see what energy you can get for our Great Leader.”


	7. Advice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Motoki and Mamoru finish up at the arcade for the night.

“Thanks for helping me clean up, Mamoru,” Motoki called from across the arcade.  
  
Mamoru looked up from sweeping, but he couldn’t see his friend- he heard the soft clinking of coins, muffled by the machines between them, and returned his eyes to the floor. It might be odd, but whenever he helped out here, he felt like he shouldn’t even look at anything involving the money, considering he wasn’t an employee or anything.

“I have to earn those dinners somehow,” he said instead, pitching his voice louder so he could be sure Motoki heard him.  
  
Motoki laughed as he stood, the jingle of the coins in the tray he carried marking his steps to the back office. “Alright, everything’s away for the owner to count in the morning. Right?” He did a quick walk down the aisles of games, touching the end cabinet of each row as he went. “Sailor V, Fighter Xtreme, Murder Mansion…” he muttered. “Yeah, that’s all of them. You’re done sweeping?”

“Of course.” Mamoru dumped the dustbin into the trash, put the broom back in its corner by the door, and followed Motoki to the exit.

It was a pattern the two of them followed at least twice a week. Mamoru, needing a break from his schoolwork, would come help Motoki finish at the arcade. Motoki, glad for the company and less time actually working, bought him dinner. Mamoru didn’t need someone to pay for his meals of course, but he appreciated the gesture all the same, and Motoki insisted on paying him back _somehow_ .

As they walked, Mamoru kept checking behind him, or hurrying ahead to glance around corners. Eventually, Motoki had to ask about it.

“What are you doing?”

“I haven’t seen the Bunhead around in a while. I keep expecting another test of hers to hit me on the head.”

Motoki snorted. “Usagi probably wouldn’t be out this late. You really should be nicer to her, you know.”

“Something about her just makes me want to pick on her. She reacts too easily.” Mamoru shrugged. “I can’t help it.”

“You sound like a bully.” Motoki stuck his tongue out. “Seriously though, she’s younger than us. We should be proper mentorly adults.”

It was Mamoru’s turn to laugh. “As if we need to be grown-ups yet.” He stuck his hands in his pockets, the pace of his footsteps slowing a little. “I don’t know,” he admitted after a minute. “You’re probably right, but she’s just infuriating. It’s like, something in me knows she can act better than she does? So every time she has a tantrum I want to make her stop.”

Motoki grinned. “See? You just need to channel that a little better then.”

“Yeah, yeah, fine, whatever. Are we done with the life advice now?”

But maybe Motoki did have a point. Maybe he should try to be nicer, just a little.


	8. Chill

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sailor Mercury's awakening.

As soon as Ami’s fingers tightened around the pen, she felt it. A drop, a drip, a trickle of power, something calling to her, something that remembered her and  _ needed _ her, something that she needed to call on if she was to escape the monster trying to crush her.

Luna’s words barely registered, she heard it more in her mind, a whisper like the soft hiss of a just-thawed faucet.

“Mercury Power, Make Up!”

The trickle opened up, a wave, a flood, the undertow close to sweeping her off her feet. She curled in on herself as it pulled her under, the chill startling, and then- and then!

The water was calm. It buoyed her. The cold cleared her head, pushed the adrenaline back, so she could take in her surroundings. Even before Luna spoke, she was reaching for the power deep inside of her, the energy that was already bubbling to the surface.

She tried to hold it, letting it gather. “Buuuubble-” A breath, brief, just long enough to make sure she had enough- “Spray!”

Fog covered the classroom. Ami hadn’t quite expected that, but she already knew what to do with it. There were plenty of screens in this room, plenty of reflective surfaces. She just had to get the monster’s axe stuck, and Sailor Moon could strike.


	9. Chicken

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Usagi fixes her room up.

Clothes hit the floor and drawers clacked loudly on their tracks as Usagi hurriedly searched. “Oh, where did I put it?” she whined, quickly growing more and more frantic.

“Usagi, you’re just making a bigger mess,” Luna said from her cautious perch on the windowsill. “What are you even looking for?”

“What do you think? I can’t believe I ever thought I could replace- here it is!” She giggled, and triumphantly spun around. She was holding her old clock, the chicken-shaped one, round and goofy and somewhat faded. She set it on the shelf behind her bed, and sat smiling at it. It was definitely much cuter than that cat clock from the evil shop.

Luna jumped down to the bed. “Is it important?”

“Hm?” Usagi turned, puzzled by the question. “It’s mine,” she said.

One of Luna’s ears flicked- confused and a little irritated. “Everything in this room is yours.”

Usagi shook her head. She remembered her first shopping trip by herself- well, without parents, Naru had been with her- with her first pocket of allowance jingling at her side. She didn’t even have a wallet yet, but she’d been excited to go out.

Naru had pointed out the clock, laughing at its silly face, and Usagi had laughed too. But she also couldn’t get it out of her head. It was cute, in its own way, and she loved the flowers on the face of it. It looked almost distressed to be awake, much how she felt in the mornings even then.

It wasn’t the first thing she had bought, but it was the first thing she’d saved for. Weeks of checking that store to make sure they didn’t sell out, weeks of carefully piling her money on her desk and counting it every time she got a little more, days of pinching herself so that she didn’t buy that extra token at the arcade or a sweet on the way home.

“Really? You went and got that?” Naru had asked, the next time she visited.

Usagi had given her a gap-toothed grin, as she’d also recently lost a tooth. “Yep! And I never would have if you didn’t spot it! Thanks, Naru!”

Naru had rolled her eyes, but she looked pleased. It really was the small things, sometimes.

“Usagi?” Luna’s scolding tone brought Usagi out of her memories.

She stuck her tongue out, and went to turn out her light. “Like I said, it’s mine. So I like it.”


	10. Flare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rei's fire finally welcomes her.

“Mars Power, Make-Up!”

The words jumped from her mouth, a battlecry. Heat weighed down on her skin, the air crackling for a moment before bursting into circles of fire around her. Rei could See, as the flames spun, almost too fast to register-  _ an amusement park, a plane looming over her, a tall girl in a brown uniform, the briefest glimpse of a red bow disappearing around a corner, that raucous blonde leaning on her and crying, fields of snow and looming ice structures that seemed like frozen explosions- _

More than that though, Rei could Feel. The flames didn’t touch her, merely enveloped her, and where they covered she could sense more than she ever had before.  _ Sore legs after running, the skip of her heart as something emerged from Grandpa, the brush of a different blonde’s fingers on her arm, numbness as cold settled over her, a fulfilling meal in her stomach and the laughter of friends in her ears. _

The fire suddenly constricted, burning away everything but her core, the sense that she was here and ready to take on anything that opposed her. A voice, distant and faded, spoke to her, urging her to fan the flames inside.

Sailor Mars emerged from the blaze, and she felt like she was finally her purest self.


	11. Treasures

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Usagi considers the things important to her.

Usagi hummed to herself as she sorted through her room. She had to keep changing things, re-organizing, but she didn’t mind. She had more friends now! It was great.

She pulled the last sweater from one of her drawers, and paused as she saw an old wooden charm that had been hidden underneath it. It was a tiny wooden mouse, scratched all over, its chain long since snapped. “I’d forgotten about you,” Usagi said, picking it up.

Naru had bought it for her, for a friendship bracelet. She’d given Naru a rabbit charm as well. The bracelets snapped eventually, because they were kids, and they didn’t know how to care for things like that. Usagi had found this though, and tucked it away, intending to make a new bracelet someday.

Silly Usagi though, she’d forgotten before she got the chance.

_ I should ask Naru if she still has hers,  _ she decided, carefully setting the charm down.  _ And make sure Rei doesn’t forget this stuff.  _ She took the clothes she’d worn to the amusement park, carefully washed and folded, and set them in the now-clear drawer. Next to it went her pink blouse and skirt and the purple bag, and then the mouse charm next to that. After a moment’s thought, she put her Dreamland ticket in there as well.

All of them were symbols of friendship, and she wanted to keep them precious, away from the rest of her stuff. Shared things didn’t happen often, for Usagi, and she wanted to make sure she didn’t forget the importance of them anymore.


End file.
